One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to estimate when it's possible to plant purple coneflower by looking at the USDA zone info for South Bay.

Planting Calendar for Purple Coneflower

Frost tolerance for purple coneflower:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Purple Coneflower tend to make it in a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in South Bay is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant purple coneflower and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your purple coneflower may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your purple coneflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

In South Bay the average date of last frost happens on January 31. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for South Bay is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in South Bay last frost occurs after January 31 be ready to protect your purple coneflower in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for South Bay

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in South Bay

You may be interested in your other planting guides for South Bay.